Anger at plan to axe CSA debts

The Child Support Agency is finally to be replaced by a new agency, but its problems remain. Concern is mounting at proposals to write off as much as £1bn of the money that it failed to collect from the former partners of lone parents, writes Jon Robins

This month the government effectively announced that the beleaguered Child Support Agency is finally to be put out of its misery with the promise of the Child Support Bill in the Queen's Speech. A white paper is due, setting out plans to replace the CSA with a new body.

However, there is growing unease at anticipated proposals to write off up to £1bn of old debt, affecting as many as 130,000 households. Total arrears amount to £3.5bn, of which £1.98bn has been deemed 'probably uncollectable'.

'Lone parents are incredibly angry that many of their cases are deemed "out of time" and non-recoverable because of CSA inaction over the years,' says Janet Allbeson, policy adviser at the charity One Parent Families. 'Parents are owed a lot of money and to write off what is a legal liability without any attempt to compensate is something we're deeply concerned about.'

'It's all very well the government saying that they want to write off £1bn, but how are you going to compensate the parents who have lost that money?' asks Kim Fellowes, who chairs the CSA committee of family lawyers group Resolution. 'If a parent is on benefits then the money might be owed to the Secretary of State. However, if not, it's owed to the parent. How does the government have the legal right to turn around and say that that debt should no longer exist?'

Three mothers told Cash about their experience with the CSA - and the money they and their children may never receive.

'I've never had a penny'

1 'It's irrelevant whether you stay together as a couple. This isn't about me and him,' says Jacqueline Harthill, a 46-year old mother from east London.

She has never received a penny from the father of her 17-year-old daughter, despite having signed on with the CSA in 1994, within 12 months of it being set up. Their relationship ended when their child was two.

Jacqueline describes her experience as 'a disaster from start to finish'. It took two years for the CSA to assess maintenance. 'When my daughter started school, I decided to go back to work part-time on the basis that I'd be getting some maintenance. I consequently found that the CSA hadn't collected any money for over a year,' she says. 'It wasn't that he hadn't paid - obviously he hadn't - but they hadn't even bothered asking.'

She has been told that her former partner was £9,500 in arrears for the period up to 2000. 'I was told even if my daughter ended up being 40, they could get hold of that money. It would always be there,' she adds.

From 2000 onwards a 'nil assessment' was made by the CSA. After a challenge by Jacqueline, the agency conceded that her ex did owe maintenance, but a new assessment has yet to be made. The CSA issued an enforcement order for the period of 1996 to 1998 for £4,000, but no action was taken. It cannot demand money that has been outstanding for more than six years, so cannot recover any arrears other than those that are covered by the order.

'Financially, it's been hard,' she says, 'but what about the emotional legacy for these children? They haven't had the contact and then they know that the absent parent isn't even willing to pay for them.'

'It says he owes £46,500'

2 'I found out last November from someone at the CSA that in July 2005 my daughter's father wrote offering to pay us £7,000 if old debts were written off,' says Sue Oliver, 47-year-old mother of Natalie, now aged 15. 'They rejected the offer and never even told me. I would rather have had that than nothing.'

Natalie was born after a brief relationship following the end of Sue's first marriage: 'I didn't want any maintenance to start. I ended the relationship and didn't want interference in my daughter's life. I felt in those circumstances I couldn't take any money.'

But she was forced to sign on with the CSA because she was claiming income support. For three and a half years she didn't receive a penny, until December 1996, when she was sent a cheque for £10.18.

Over the past 13 years, Sue has received about £15,000 and last year the CSA attempted to enforce a liability order for a further £10,067. The final straw came on the day of the hearing when court staff withdrew the application on the basis of incorrect calculations. She was told that the correct liability order was only for £604.

Out of the blue, last week, the CSA contacted her to say she was in fact owed a further £46,567.18. 'It's a farce,' she says. 'I'm not holding my breath and I'm not changing my Christmas plans.'

What has it meant not to have this money? 'We've been living on a tight budget for so long, and since I've remarried it's been worse - ironically. My new husband has consistently paid maintenance for two children who don't live with us.' He is in the army and maintenance is deducted at source.

'My ex just dodged them'

3 'My ex has managed to dodge pretty much everything the CSA has thrown at him,' says 44-year-old Valerie Lloyd. She was married for 13 years and has three children aged 14 to 21. She first applied to the CSA in 1994 and for a short period between 1999 and 2004 received monthly payments of £111.

'Each time he was assessed, he was asked to pay a higher amount, but I would never get that,' she says. 'I would only get what he was paying originally.'

Her former husband has been assessed as owing £3,668 from 1994 to 2000 and £1,200 since then. Valerie is particularly angry because she believes the agency could easily have enforced a first order against his property: his name had been on the deeds of his mother's house.

'The CSA should be responsible for its errors or at least make some form of compensation,' she says.